Follow KPCC

Fox, Gyllenhaal back `Stand Up to Cancer' telethon

by Lynn Elber | AP

Share

A fourth major broadcast network and Jake Gyllenhaal are adding their support to the ambitious TV fundraiser "Stand Up to Cancer."

Fox will join previously announced ABC, CBS and NBC in donating a simultaneous commercial-free hour of prime-time for the September telethon airing from Los Angeles, it was announced Tuesday.

Gyllenhaal will appear in a "Stand Up to Cancer" public service announcement set to debut during Major League Baseball's All-Star Game airing Tuesday evening on Fox.

More cable networks also have agreed to carry the fundraiser, with VH1, HBO Latino, TV1 and G4 joining previously announced HBO, Discovery Health, MLB Network, E! and the Style Network.

"Stand Up to Cancer," to be hosted by Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams, will air Sept. 10.

Film and TV producer Laura Ziskin (the "Spider-Man" franchise), a cancer survivor who produced the first telecast in 2008, has taken on the job again. The original fundraiser, which included Lance Armstrong, Beyonce and other celebrities, helped deliver more than $100 million for research into the disease.

"Cancer is a crisis and we want to convey that all Americans can play a role in helping the scientists who are working to end it," Ziskin said in a statement.

More than $83 million so far has been committed to five "dream teams" of researchers from more than 50 institutions and to 13 innovative scientists working against cancer, according to the Stand Up to Cancer project.

The focus of the project - called SU2C in shorthand - is to support research that translates quickly from the laboratory to treatments and technology that benefit patients, Ziskin has said.

The American Association for Cancer Research, the scientific partner of Stand Up to Cancer, administers grants and provides scientific oversight in partnership with a Stand Up to Cancer advisory committee.

Stand Up to Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a nonprofit TV and film industry group that supports programs addressing health, education and social issues. Major League Baseball was the first donor to join the anti-cancer effort.

Telethon viewers will be asked to make donations by phone or on the Stand Up to Cancer website. All public donations go to cancer research, the group said.

In 2008, Fox declined to take part in the first telethon to instead focus on its "Idol Gives Back" initiative, but had agreed to run announcements promoting the program.